There was a lot of hoo-ha this week about reaching the 50-week countdown to the Super Bowl — and light-up markers for that in San Francisco (on Coit Tower) and Santa Clara (Levi’s Stadium).

But the most significant part of the milestone, at least if you believe the Super Bowl is indeed sincere about its charitable component, was the announcement of the first grant recipients for the local Host Committee’s Legacy Fund that will benefit local non-profits. The committee has pledged that 25 percent of the money raised by local corporations and individuals for the Super Bowl will go to charity in the “50 Fund.” It was spearheaded by Daniel Lurie, the San Francisco philanthropist who chairs the Host Committee.

Of course, like anything else, those grants can be sucked up into the politics of this Super Bowl. Which organizations, in which cities, will receive the money? With the game being played in Santa Clara but the bulk of Super Bowl activities taking place in San Francisco — and organizers promising a regional event to encompass the entire Bay Area — there are a lot of eyes on how this element of the extravaganza will play out.

Well, the first $2.5 million worth of grants were announced Friday. And the good news is, there were indeed spread out all around the Bay.

According to organizers, almost 150 non-profits have applied for the grants and five were picked to receive the first batch of money. Each will receive $500,000 to support their various activities. The list:Continue Reading →

Hasso Plattner, the Sharks’ owner, is the NHL’s international man of mystery. He makes infrequent public comments. He lives in his native Germany much of the year. He has a Bay Area place where he stays occasionally. He shows up for Sharks games sporadically.

But we do know this: Plattner was at Saturday night’s outdoor game.

We know this, too: The game was very big for him. Plattner’s software company, SAP, has its name slapped across the Levi’s Stadium rim as one of the building’s significant corporate sponsor. Across the street, a portion of the 49ers’ training facility is known as the “SAP Performance Center.”

You can surmise, then, that Plattner was excited about entertaining friends and clients at Saturday’s game and enthused about the prospect of his hockey team defeating the rival Los Angeles Kings in front of 70,205 people.

You can also surmise that Plattner was disappointed and upset when the final score turned out to be Kings 2, Sharks 1.

But would Plattner be disappointed and upset enough to do something drastic and shake up the front office or coaching staff? Right now? Just because of this one loss? On a night when the spectacle itself was so impressive and demonstrated how much the Sharks have succeeded in boosting Northern California hockey?

That sounds crazy. But crazier things have happened, especially in the NHL. There are always many rumors and gossip gurgles floating around teams. Continue Reading →

The National Football League will be a most interested observer of this weekend’s outdoor hockey game at Levi’s Stadium. And not because Roger Goodell is a Joe Pavelski fan.

For all I know, the NFL commissioner has never heard of Pavelski. But Goodell will receive a full report of how the logistics transpired when 70,000 people pile into Levi’s Stadium for the Sharks-Kings game on Saturday night.

In speaking with 49ers executive Jim Mercurio last month in Arizona, I learned that the hockey event is considered a very important run-through for the Super Bowl game that will be played in Santa Clara on February of 2016.

Bay Area Raider followers need to take a deep breath and calm down. The team is moving nowhere tomorrow. Certainly not this season. And probably not for a few more, minimum.

Yes, Thursday’s report from the Los Angeles Times was interesting and a surprise. The idea that the Raiders and San Diego Chargers have been working hand-in-hand to develop a potential Southern California NFL stadium that would be shared by both is something new. But how many different reports of Los Angeles stadium “projects” or “plans” or “concepts” have we seen over the years? None have come close to reaching fruition.

You can read the Los Angeles Times report here. All of it is solid information. But that doesn’t mean the Chargers/Raiders stadium is a solid package of any sort.

For one thing, it sounds as if the citizens of Carson, where the venue would be constructed on a former municipal landfill, must weigh in with a vote at the ballot box before anything happens. In California, that’s always a big “if.”

Also, there’s the complication of St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s alternate stadium plan in nearby Inglewood. Is Los Angeles going to be the home of three NFL teams? No. So the league will have to sort out all of this.

I do have a lot of questions to ask the Raiders and owner Mark Davis about the whole thing, however.

Those questions would include:

— If the Raiders have thought seriously about sharing a stadium with another NFL team, why haven’t they talked to the 49ers about sharing Levi’s Stadium? That way, the team could stay in Northern California and closer to those Oakland fans that Mark Davis says he loves.

— And if sharing with the 49ers is out because the Raiders don’t want to be a tenant with another team as their landlord, then why didn’t the Raiders get involved with the 49ers during the Levi’s Stadium construction phase when some sort of partnership/sharing arrangement might have been worked out?

— How intense is this new Carson gambit? Or is it just a pure leverage ploy to get Oakland to move faster on a new stadium plan at the Coliseum site, which Davis covets?

— Assuming it is a leverage ploy, is Oakland even in position at this point to move rapidly? The city’s sports venue situation continues to be complicated, with the A’s also saying they are interested in talking about a ballpark at the same Coliseum site. I continue to maintain that Oakland will be forced to choose between the two franchises, if new mayor Libby Schaaf is firm in her policy that no public funds must be used on any Raiders or A’s projects. That means private funds would have to pay for the construction, with development of the Coliseum land paying for the stadium. All the development experts I’ve interviewed say that it’s unlikely there’s enough developable land to pay for two stadiums.

— Who in the Raiders’ front office has been working with the Chargers on this newfangled shared stadium idea? Is it Davis himself? Or is it Marc Badain, who has just been promoted to team president. My guess is that Badain has done the spadework.

— Has the NFL approved this Raiders-Chargers negotiation marriage? Are there any conflicts of interest involved, since both of them are in the same division, for Pete’s sake.

— If this announcement creates leverage in San Diego for the Chargers to get the new stadium they’ve been seeking there for the last decade, then would the Raiders carry on in Carson by themselves? Do they even have the money to do so? Or would the Raiders then throw in with the Rams in Inglewood?

One question we will have answered Friday is whether Mark Davis chooses to show up at the news conference set to announce the Raiders/Chargers plan in Carson. It’s suppsoed to happen Friday afternoon. Davis’ presence or non-presence could give us a real indication of his committment to the idea.

I also know this much: When there are so many questions like this, there’s going to be no definitive stadium project set in stone for a long, long, long, long while. So keep that in mind when you see video from that conference. And ask any longtime Raider fan about Irwindale. The Raiders actually struck a deal there in 1987 for a new Los Angeles/SoCal stadium. You’ll notice it never got built.

I know, I know. You can argue. I am ready for the argument.
My biggest argument will be on display Saturday night, when 70,000 people show up at Levi’s Stadium to watch a hockey game where, for most of those eyes in attendance, the puck will the size of a fermion particle. (Silicon Valley lingo.)

I know, I know. Conventional wisdom reacts to that statement with a big: “So what?” Conventional wisdom says that this sold out Sharks-Kings outdoor game is pure novelty and sizzle. Conventional wisdom will say that “casual fans” and “fashionable people” will show up Saturday just because it is “the thing to do.”

I think it is just the opposite.

I think Saturday’s game is the Outside Lands Festival of Hockey. Just as all fans of a certain music tribe will gather to confirm their appreciation for that music and celebrate their mutual love, Saturday is a night where the hockey tribe will gather to do the same.

I found agreement on this point from an objective observer that I bumped into last weekend at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament. Like me, this objective observer believes California has developed hockey fans that rival those anywhere in America. Remember, last winter at Dodger Stadium, another outdoor game drew 54,099 people to see the Kings play the Anaheim Ducks.

“That night was so spectacular,” Wayne Gretzky told me at Pebble one day. “To have that many people watching a hockey game . . . we’ve come a long way from the Cow Palace days of the 1990’s.”

I know, I know. Gretzky might not truly be an objective observer.

He is, however, the Godfather of this game. Gretzky’s trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988 was the big bang of California hockey. It made the Kings cool in LA and lit a match for expansion franchises in Anaheim and San Jose. He waves off the notion that he saw it all coming.

“I’ve got to be honest,” Gretzky said. “I never thought two teams in Southern California were going to be as dominant or as good a franchises as they’ve become, let alone three in California. So it really is exciting. It really is good. The three general managers do a really nice job. It all goes to management.”

With all due respect to the Great One, I beg to differ. I think “it” all goes to the paying customers. Hockey at the NHL level is the same riveting spectacle everywhere. But as the league has expanded, fans in California have supported the sport more consistently than in any other Sun Belt state.

I know, I know. That’s no monumental achievement. So you are rolling your eyes. You are wondering how I intend to back up my broader conclusion about California hockey fans being better than California fans of other sports.

Smith was grateful for the affection. But the former 49ers quarterback is now a fixture in Kansas City after two seasons there with the Chiefs, the team he represented in this weekend at AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Only three years ago in the very same event, he spent a day caddying for his then-coach, Jim Harbaugh. Now, both are ex-49ers. So that glorious day in 2012 must seem like a very long time ago.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Smith said. “It does. He was supposed to return the favor. I guess he had a valid excuse.”

And yes, Smith admitted, watching Harbaugh and most of his coaches leave the 49ers this winter, to be replaced by a new staff under head coach Jim Tomsula, was jarring.

“I think for me, it’s still just tough to believe all those guys are gone, all that turnover,” Smith said. “I wasn’t there so obviously it’s hard for me to speculate on any of that. I was just kind of shocked. There were a lot of ball games that got won over the last few years but for whatever reason, they couldn’t make it work. I don’t know. I wish Coach Tomsula well. I wish him the best.”

Smith then noted that he played quarterback in the only NFL game Tomsula previously coached, during the final week of the 2011 season after Mike Singletary was dismissed. Continue Reading →

My top memory of Evgeni Nabokov as a Shark didn’t happen in a game. It happened after a game.

A really awful game.

It was the night of April 27, 2009. It was in Southern California. Less than two weeks after posting the best record in the National Hockey League that season, the top-seeded Sharks had been eliminated by the eighth-seeded Anaheim Ducks.

Other Sharks ran for cover in the aftermath. Many didn’t make themselves available for postgame interviews. That included some of the alleged team leaders.

Nabokov did not hide. He had been the losing goalie in the decisive Game 6. Following the 4-1 loss, he pulled a chair out from his locker space toward the middle of the room. Nabokov sat down. He said to ask any question we wanted. We did. He answered. And then, finally, had nothing much more to offer.

“We can go into details, who and what,” Nabokov said. “But the bottom line is that they were a better team than us. That’s unfortunate.”

For a man who learned English as a second language, Nabokov picked a good word. “Unfortunate” has described so many of the Sharks’ playoff exits over the years. But I always appreciated that after the ones Nabokov lost, he would be a stand-up goalie and not duck responsibility.

Heck, he was still doing it Wednesday afternoon when he officially announced his retirement from hockey at SAP Center.

He hadn’t been there in a while. But this week, the Sharks made a trade with Tampa Bay so that Nabokov could return and retire as a member of the team for which he played 563 games and established franchise goalie records that will last a long while. He left town when the Sharks decided not to re-sign him following the 2009-10 season. There had to be some bitterness. But he has gotten over that. He kept his family’s year-round home in San Jose. And in Nabokov’s remarks to the assembled media and former teammates, he thanked all the right people.

Then, without prompting, Nabokov expressed his regret that the one thing he and the Sharks weren’t able to accomplish together was a run to the Stanley Cup.Continue Reading →

A new baseball park in San Jose could be on the horizon. Just not for the Oakland A’s. And not downtown.

The San Jose Giants are exploring the idea of building a new stadium on the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds property on Tully Road, this newspaper has learned.
The stadium could replace San Jose Municipal Stadium as the Giants’ home and might be the centerpiece of a youth sports complex that would be constructed by the Class A minor league baseball team.

“We’re in the phase of gathering input, in the research phase,” said Daniel Orum, the Giants’ president and CEO. “It’s unusual that you can find 150 acres of mostly undeveloped property like the fairgrounds. We’re mostly intrigued by it as a possibility of a youth sports complex, something that could serve the fans and families of the South Bay. We know there’s a lack of playing fields here.”

Orum said that he and the Giants were approached on the idea by county consultants hired to examine development of the fairgrounds. The property is now primarily used to host the County Fair each summer and is the site of an off-track horse betting facility. The fairgrounds also has several buildings that can be rented for other events.
However, ever since the main grandstand was demolished some 10 years years ago, most of the fairgrounds land consists of vacant dirt. Last year, the county hired a Chicago firm, Johnson Consulting, to examine potential uses for that property. Johnson Consulting says it has helped develop more than 25 minor league or collegiate stadiums and/or sports complexes.

“We’re following the county’s process,” Orum said. “And it’s early in the process. We were asked if we would like to participate. We’re talking.”

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez confirmed that she and county officials is eager to hear what the Giants have in mind.

“I’m excited that the Giants are thinking about this,” Chavez said. “I think that’s fantastic. But they aren’t the only ones interested in doing something that may involve the fairgrounds property.”

Dave Cortese, another of the five county supervisors, is of the same mind.

“My highest priority for the fairgrounds is continued recreational uses,” Cortese said. “This could be a great fit, but only one of many uses the county will look at.”

Of course, nothing is ever simple in the world of sports venue proposals. A minor league ballpark at the fairgrounds also has multiple levels of potential complications. Continue Reading →

We’ve got 52 weeks left until the Super Bowl visits the Bay Area. Sure, 52 weeks does seem like a long time. But someone has to start a countdown so it might as well be me.

My intent is to post something here every week about something related to the Super Bowl 50 runup, except for weeks I’m on vacation. This first one is pretty easy. I returned from Phoenix last week with my notebook full of information, plus some interview transcripts of people from the Bay Area who were there to scout out this year’s event in preparation for Feb. 7, 2016.

So this time, I am posting edited transcripts of two such interviews – with Jim Mercurio of the 49ers and Santa Clara Police Chief Michael Sellers. They’ll be two very key behind-the-scenes people in the leadup to SB50. In their interviews with me, however, we also covered topics that apply to all events at Levi’s Stadium, including the thorny parking and traffic issues. I think 49ers fans will find Mercurio and Sellers’ answers instructive, if not completely satisfying. I thought the suggestion about pedestrian bridges over Tasman Drive and Great America Parkway to help make pregame and postgame pedestrian traffic move more smoothly was especially good.

Mercurio, vice president of stadium operations for the 49ers, has worked 21 years for the team. Basically, if Levi’s Stadium were a high school, Mercurio would be the principal. He runs the day-to-day operations there and keeps the classroom schedule running as smoothly as possible. Not sure if he gives out detentions. He’s heard all the (mostly warranted) criticisms of Levi’s in its first year of operation. But from my observations, Mercurio is sincere about wanting to get things right and get everyone home safely each day. (In case you’re wondering, in this analogy, Jed York would be president of the school board and Jim Tomsula would be the P.E. instructor.)

Chief Sellers heads up the Santa Clara police department. He grew up in Sunnyvale and has been spent his entire law enforcement career in Santa Clara, beginning as a police cadet in 1978. The city elects its police chief and Sellers has held the office since December of 2012. Sellers will be in command of the law enforcement on premises at SB50, as well as coordinating with many other agencies, as he explains in our interview.

Both guys gave me plenty of time in Phoenix and I believe tried to give me sincere and honest answers. I appreciated that. I tried to confine these transcripts to the stuff I think most fans would find interesting. I’m sure that I will be checking back in with Mercurio and Sellers again over the course of the coming year, so if at some point, you have questions that you think they could answer, send them along and I’ll try to get them answered. I also have a lengthy interview transcript from Keith Bruce, the CEO and president of the Super Bowl 50 host committee. I’m in the process of editing that down and will post that here as soon as I can, perhaps in next week’s installment.

Meanwhile, here’s what Mercurio and Sellers had to say. I tried to cover as many bases as possible:

JIM MERCURIO

Q. You had an up-down-initial football season at Levi’s Stadium in terms of stadium operations. Have you learned enough to be confident the Super Bowl will come off without a hitch?

MERCURIO: “There will always be more negative feedback than positive in this business. That’s just how it is. I understand that and accept that. But it’s our job to do everything we can to make people’s experience as excellent as possible. We did a lot of things right. We need to make some things better. Sometimes, things are out of our control and we’re still expected to fix it. That’s all right. I am proud of the way our team members in the stadium worked hard and stayed positive. We definitely know we have to keep making improvements. But I think many people still had good experiences at Levi’s Stadium in the first season. I think we’ll definitely be ready for the Super Bowl.”

Q. Parking and traffic was the biggest complaint I heard. Where do you think all that stands now after the season is complete? And how will that apply to Super Bowl parking and traffic?

MERCURIO: “I think by the end of the season, our season ticket holders and fans learned their way into the lots and the load-in was a lot smoother. The focus now will be how to make the exit better. By the end of the season, the last car was leaving about an hour and a half after the game. That was better than Candlestick, I believe. The Super Bowl will be a different situation than regular season games, though. With Super Bowl fans, for about 90 to 95 percent of them. it will be their first time visiting the stadium. There will be international visitors. Your way-finding signs are even more important. When you put on a Super Bowl, the security perimeter expands from 100 feet surrounding the stadium to 300 feet surrounding the stadium, so some parking spots will be lost. But in the Super Bowl bid, there is a specified number of spaces that must be provided. The NFL has made four or five site visits already to assess things. I think it will all be good.”

Q. I know it’s not your direct area of responsibility but I also know you have some input into the transit situation in terms of people arriving by trains and buses. Are you confident that will go smoothly in Santa Clara? At Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey, there was a real screwup in the train situation with some people not even making it to the game because of a transfer station that couldn’t accommodate all the people.

MERCURIO: “That was a miss. A definite miss. I think the mistake made was in not anticipating those crowds well enough. They learned and we learned. The key is the passenger numbers. You can get ahead of that by monitoring how many people have bought tickets, have bought clipper passes in the days leading up to the game. I think everyone will be on top of that. And the bus and limo situation and that sort of thing are two to three times that of a normal game.”
Q. How is Levi’s Stadium equipped for a Super Bowl, internally?

MERCURIO: “If you tried to design a stadium specifically for a Super Bowl, I think we meet all the requirements and probably exceed some of them. The elephant tunnel (stadium ops terminology for the biggest entrance to the field) is definitely big enough to handle all the stuff you need to move in and out of there for the pregame and halftime shows. Some of our dressing rooms underneath are divisible and can turn from one large dressing room into two smaller rooms with temporary walls. My internal quest is to showcase the building the way we want it to be showcased. We want the Super Bowl to come back. We want Levi’s Stadium to be part of the regular Super Bowl rotation. We’re still finalizing the exact number of seats for the capacity. We’ll lose some seats to the auxiliary press box but we’ll also be putting up some seats on the plazas. The outdoor hockey game will be kind of a test for that because we’re using those seats at that event. Our capacity for football in the regular season is 68,500. We’ll be at over 70,000 for the Super Bowl.”

Q. Your other issue last season was the turf. It clearly wasn’t right, from the start. And you had to replace it a few times. Some weeks, it looked awful. What really happened? Will all that be cleared up for the Super Bowl?

MERCURIO: “I am not an agronomist and I still don’t know all the details about everything that happened. But I don’t know that we quite understood the makeup of the subsoil beneath the turf. It’s really the balance of soils that you’re looking for, that you need, combing sand and the right kinds of subsoils. I think what happened was that our subsoil was too loose or had too much sand mixed in. In a normal season, you re-sod twice. So it wasn’t too out of the normal to re-sod the way we did. But next year will be better. And what will probably happen is that at the end of next regular season, another new field will be installed and the NFL will take over the maintenance and control of that field. I’m sure it’ll be good for the Super Bowl.”

Q. Do you have any preferences for what the Super Bowl halftime show will be?

MERCURIO: “Oh, I’m not the guy to ask and I don’t have any say in that. I tend to lean toward country music. But I guess if I were planning, I’d like to see something from each genre of music for the halftime show, with multiple performers from the Bay Area. We have so many great people in music in our area.”

CHIEF MICHAEL SELLERS

Q. What will be your specific duties next year?

CHIEF SELLERS: “Santa Clara is the chief law enforcement agency for the Super Bowl. Super Bowl 50 is being held in Santa Clara. So it’s ultimately my responsibility, the safety of the people attending the event. But also, one thing that I think is extremely important is, with the stadium we have, is that we continue the high level of service to our community. I don’t think we can lose sight of that. To me, that’s really important. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had plenty of support from the city council and the mayor, from our city staff and our citizens regarding the stadium. I’ve always promised them that when we have events, if someone calls and needs assistance for whatever it may be, they will receive the same high level of assistance that they currently receive, even in the middle of all this. That is a key point for me. In the middle of the Super Bowl, on Super Bowl day, if somebody on the south side or the north side or someplace in our city calls for assistance, they will get the same high level of service.”

Q. That worked out all right during the 2014 football season at Levi’s?

CHIEF SELLERS: “I believe so, yes.”

Q. Nobody on your force gets the day off for the Super Bowl next year?

CHIEF SELLERS: “No. We will be working long hours. Everybody will be.”

Q. Could you outline your itinerary while here in Phoenix? What you’ve learned?

CHIEF SELLERS: “The host group here and law enforcement have set up special situations for us. Yesterday we were in Scottsdale, today in Glendale, tomorrow in Phoenix. We don’t really want to discuss the actual venues or what we’ve looked at behind-the-scenes, for security and law enforcement purposes. However, I will say it’s very interesting to see the cooperation among all agencies. I think that’s the biggest takeaway that I’ve gotten from last year and this year. No matter the size of your organization, you need to cooperate and collaborate with your federal, state agencies. And not only that – I’ve learned this – but with the private sector also. It’s very important that you all work together.”

Q. The private sector would consist of what? Private security people?

CHIEF SELLERS: “Private security people, who’ll be involved if there are Super Bowl events held at malls or other private spaces, that type of thing. You need to work with one another. They need you. You need them. And it’s very, very important that you have that open line of communication.”

Q. I know no one wants to reveal exactly how many people are involved with all of the security. But how many agencies are we really talking about? Here in Phoenix and next year in Santa Clara?

CHIEF SELLERS: “I’ve never really given that consideration, because we’re going to have several committees and subcommittees. Our structure is going to be very similar to what Glendale has used here, what Phoenix has used. We’re going to have a large group of subcommittees and it’s going to consist of federal, state and local agencies. And I know one of the subcommittees in our area is going to involve human trafficking, which is going to be huge, and it’s very important to us. Counterfeit merchandise is another big area. So there’s a lot of stuff other than the game and the safety and security of the people attending that event. I know the San Francisco police department has a number of people here to look at all of that, as well.”

Q. So what is the most interesting thing you’ve seen here?

CHIEF SELLERS: “For me, it’s like I was telling the gentleman who was driving us around today, it just seems like everybody is working so well together. There’s no egos. It’s like, ‘What do you need and what can I provide?’ ’’

Q. You expected otherwise?

CHIEF SELLERS: “No, but you’re never sure. At our end, we were fortunate, with the opening of Levi’s Stadium this year, the way we wanted to set it up, we wanted to involve a lot of agencies. So this isn’t a first-time thing with this for us. And we have a large number of events in Santa Clara this spring, the outdoor hockey game and the Wrestlemania, some concerts . . . “

Q. Right. There are actually two Taylor Swift concerts. Are you a Taylor Swift fan?

CHIEF SELLERS: “No. (Chuckles.) But we want to keep people safe.”

Q. Have you thought about what your days during Super Bowl week will be like for you next year? What your average day will be like?

CHIEF SELLERS: “Well, it will probably begin when I wake up at 5 a.m. and probably ending about midnight or one o’clock. I will tell you that when I got back to my hotel room here in Phoenix last night at 9 o’clock, I almost passed out from exhaustion. I think that’s going to be the same thing. I spoke briefly with the Glendale police chief yesterday and she says they are long, long days. But they’re also exciting. You do a large amount of planning for a short time of fun. But when you see it come together, and see people gather, and see the fans excited and enjoying themselves, it’s worth it. Plus, we want it to be a fun experience. We want them to come back. We want this to be an extremely successful event to showcase the 50th Super Bowl.”

Q. I know Santa Clara is planning some events of its own Super Bowl week. Glendale is doing some big outdoor concerts in the days leading up to the game, kind of outside the Super Bowl official events. Who handles the law enforcement aspect of those events?

Q. What can you tell people back in Santa Clara about what you’ve seen here and how it might apply to next year?

CHIEF SELLERS: “You really have to experience this to kind of understand it, how they can transform a dirt parking lot into a village. There are these temporary structures that can hold 5,000 or 6,000 or 10,000 people for an event or a party or whatever. It’s just amazing to me, that kind of scale. When we get back, in a few weeks, we’ll start to focus. We’ll get some information from the host committee about what events, exactly, will be held in Santa Clara. I know the City of Santa Clara wants to hold some events and they’re having discussions about that. There’s nothing in concrete. I’m involved in those discussions. When those things are locked in, we’ll move forward with a better understanding.”

Q. You’ve been planning for this a long time, correct? I know you were at the Super Bowl in New Jersey, as well. What about other stadiums or events?

CHIEF SELLERS: “I had two guys assigned to a special events unit. And they traveled to 20 or 21 stadiums across the country in preparation for the Levi’s Stadium opening. I personally went to two or three stadiums. And what was interesting to me was, not one stadium fits the same footprint or template as ours. That’s exactly what we’re learning here. We look at it and say, ‘Well, that won’t work in Santa Clara’ or ‘This will work in Santa Clara.’ So you take bits and pieces for your own plan. But what’s important about trips like this is, you save a lot of time and money. Why re-invent the wheel? We’re listening and learning and gaining a lot of information. And we’re building relationships, so we can make a call and ask, ‘Hey, can I have the information on this part of your operation that I really like?’ Instead of us having to develop it, we can just get it and massage it. And how do you put a price on that?”

Q. Anything you specifically will ‘steal” from what you’ve seen here?

CHIEF SELLERS: “Some of the security measures they’re taking are very interesting. I can’t get into specific details. But one thing I did notice was that they’re using alcohol breathalyzer devices, so that when people are leaving parties or events, as a courtesy but not a requirement, they ask: ‘Do you want to blow into the device so you know you can drive?’ ’’
Q. What’s your biggest fear or concern in the leadup to next year’s game? What will keep you up at night?

CHIEF SELLERS: “Obviously, after 9-11, a terrorist act. The safety of all the fans is my top concern. And their enjoyment. I want them to have the best time ever. The NFL obviously wants to showcase Super Bowl 50 and being in Santa Clara, I want to showcase our great city and what it has to offer. I want to look at us as a great destination, with a professional law enforcement organization and a safe place. But on the flip side, I want our citizens to know that we are going to provide a high level of service to them outside of the game.”
Q. Do you sense that most of those constituents are satisfied with the way things are going at Levi’s, from their standpoint away from the stadium?

CHIEF SELLERS: “This is kind of interesting. We did four or five community outreach meetings around the city before the stadium opened. It involved us, the VTA and Jim Mercurio from the 49ers. And basically, the presentation was: We think this is our best plan as of right now. We understand there are going to be tweaks. We’re going to make tweaks. Which we did. And we said that in mid-season, we would have another community meeting to listen to feedback. And that was the most interesting one for me. I’m biased. I think our citizens in Santa Clara are well-educated, smart and involved. At the mid-season meeting, there were a couple that were very critical. But the majority there said, ‘Hey, you guys are doing a very good job on the neighborhood streets – I live two blocks away and I thought there were going to be parties in my street but you guys are doing a very good job of protecting and enforcing the neighborhood. However, those banner planes that are flying around, can we do something about that? ‘ ”

Q. Well, can you do something about that?

CHIEF SELLERS: “We’ve tried. The mayor, the city manager, myself, we wrote letters to the banner plane companies. We met with them. We’re trying to put some curbs on it. You know, there are FAA regulations that govern it. There’s a certain ceiling. But they are allowed to do their advertising. That’s out of our control. But we’re trying. Other people were concerned about the traffic and noise. But we talked through that stuff. I know there will be other restrictions on the Super Bowl just for that day.”

Q. The complaints at Levi’s have been largely about parking and traffic. One interesting element I’d learned was that the stadium is so efficent at getting spectators from their seats to the exit gates, it means more people arrive at their cars faster, which creates more impatience. But your job is to still get cars out of there faster. Where do things stand with that now, at the end of one season?

CHIEF SELLERS: “The information I had was, at the last couple of home games, everyone was out of the parking lots after an hour and a half. Now what that means is, some people were not out until an hour and a half afterward. They might not have been happy about that. But most were out sooner. And in many years of doing this, I’ve seen events at other places that exceeded that hour and a half. At Candlestick, I know it could be excess of two hours. Still, we had a lot of people who stayed inside the stadium. They stayed in the clubs, they socialized and didn’t go into the parking lot until that long after the game. But the people who wanted to leave, they either got out very quick, which a lot of people were pleased with, and the maximum from some of the satellite lots, it was an hour and a half. And some of that is because of the infrastructure and roadways. We did make some changes as the season went along because of that. We’re looking to make additional changes.”

Whew. This was the kind of Super Bowl that needs to be digested and analyzed for days, if not weeks.
Of course, I was on deadline Sunday night and had to kick out a column in less than 45 minutes after getting back up from the locker room inside a jammed stadium.
And now that I’ve filed the column, I am eager to get back to the hotel for a quick bite and to chill out – but I do have some leftover quick thoughts that might be of interest. Even if not, here they are anyway:

 My print column went heavy on the Patriots’ game-winning-catch hero, Julian Edelman of Woodside High. But for space reasons, I had to leave out one element of his story from Sunday’s game. And I think it will become a talking point in the week ahead. It’s possible that Edelman should not have even been on the field to make his touchdown reception because on the Patriots’ third touchdown drive, he was rocked by an upper-body-to-upper-body slam tackle perpetrated by Seattle safety Kam Chancellor. Edelman, a tough cookie, rose to his feet and continued downfield after the catch but seemed wobbly. He also stayed down on the field a few extra seconds after his next catch and did some knee-walking, although no time out was called either by the Patriots or the referee. Doctors watching from the press box signaled to the field doctors that Edelman should be checked out for a concussion, according to NBC sports. But it’s unclear if that was done. One report said yes, one report said no.

 Afterward, Edelman was asked if he had been checked out for a concussion but answered: “We’re not allowed to talk about injuries.” He also referred to Seattle as “St. Louis” in one interview answer before correcting himself. This may or may not mean anything. But the handling of Edelman’s situation was and is an important one, because of the emphasis placed on concussions in the NFL ever since a medical report declared that such injuries and especially multiple concussions can have long-term effects. And Edelman had been forced to miss New England’s final two regular season games after being diagnosed with a concussion in Week 15.

– The pressure to keep Edelman on the field during a Super Bowl, even if injured, would of course be immense. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady called Edelman’s catch in the face of Chancellor’s hit the biggest play of that drive. And wide receiving teammate Danny Amendola said of Edelman: Continue Reading →